Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Don’t make assumptions about comedy and depression after the death of Robin Williams

This article was first published on the
Conversation on Tuesday 12th August 2014. The original article can be found here.

News of Robin Williams’s suicide
will have taken many of us by surprise. We always feel a mix of emotions when
we hear someone famous, successful, creative and much loved has been suffering
unbearable distress. But the fact remains that most of us are not equipped to
see the suffering of people beyond their public mask.

Although nowadays we’re familiar
with the idea that mental health
problems can affect anyone, it nevertheless strikes us as
particularly, sad, poignant and inexplicable when we hear of the death of
someone who seems to have achieved what many of us aspire towards.

The value of each of
us

We all want a happy, healthy life
and family or friends to share it with, and to enjoy the good things life has
to offer. Many of us also want to be successful; to win the prizes of our
chosen profession, just as Williams did.

Indeed, many of us also believe we
would enjoy being rich, but even that isn’t necessarily true. Many of us think
we would be happy if we were creative, were able to make people laugh or weep
at the truths of our existence, to know that we were loved by millions.

It seems very odd to us, from this
perspective, when we learn that rich, successful, creative, funny people can be
unhappy. But the fact remains that mental health problems can affect us
all.

All deaths are tragedies; when a
well-known and well-loved person dies, there is an understandable (and
touching) outpouring of messages commenting on just how loved, how beautiful
and how talented that person was. But this is true for us all.

Each daughter, each son, everyone
who feels so desperate that they are tempted to end their lives is beautiful,
talented, loved and loving.

For any number of reasons,
material or even artistic success may not lead to happiness. Perhaps because
for many people such material success does not address the things that really
matter to them. Or perhaps because many people have other problems in their
lives.

If a person is struggling to
recover from substance abuse or drug addiction, for instance, as Williams was,
material success can seem pointless at best, and even unhelpful.

Perhaps with material success
(especially, perhaps, in show business) comes a superficiality and
artificiality in those surrounding you that can make it difficult to find true
meaning and purpose in life. And it may even make more genuine relationships
difficult to maintain.

It is only really possible to
understand each person’s life, the reasons behind their happiness or
unhappiness, and the reasons behind their actions, by understanding how they
see the world. Artists and comedians can help us understand this.

Creative genius – such as that
shown by Williams – can reveal sensitive and appropriately ambiguous aspects of
mental health problems and the wonderful but tragic nature of a life fully
lived (think of his films The Fisher King or Dead Poets
Society).

Not about victims

Artists can help us see beyond the
notion of someone being a “victim of mental illness” and instead, lead us to
think about what it means to see life through someone else’s eyes.

Many psychologists and
psychiatrists have speculated on a link between mental health problems and
creativity. The relationship appears to be a complex one, and probably more
closely related to our stereotypes than to reality.

Just as we like to think material
success makes people happy (when this is not always true), a stereotype of
“madness” is the crazy but creative iconoclast, cheerfully making bizarre but
imaginative connections.

But the relationship isn’t strong.
For all the reasons described above, mental health problems can affect us all,
so we are all liable to experience both elation and depression. Perhaps the
more strongly we engage with being alive, the more strongly we feel all emotions.

So perhaps people in creative
industries can make imaginative leaps that the rest of us are incapable of, but
this may well bring some threats as well as benefits. After all, if you can
think of a hundred uses of a rubber chicken, you can probably also think of a
hundred reasons why you’re not as clever as you think you are.

And perhaps comedians use humour
to manage their relationships with others – even though that may seem somewhat
unsurprising, given their profession.

But most importantly, we should be
very careful about two assumptions.

First, we can all experience
mental health problems. It’s a mistake to assume that because a person appears
to have material success, they are content – there can be a million reasons for
a person’s unhappiness.

And it’s a mistake to assume that,
for some people, mental health problems add wackiness and eccentricity but are
otherwise benign; when a person is suffering, that suffering is real.

Anyone seeking support
and information about suicide in Australia can contact Lifeline on 131 114 or
beyondblue 1300 22 46 36. In the UK, the Samaritans can be
contacted on 08457 90 90 90 or on email at jo@samaritans.org

5 comments:

Thank you so much for writing this! I've been cringing all day as I read my Facebook and Twitter feeds because people seem to be using Robin William's death as a way to glorify mental illness and suicide, and which does more harm than good in efforts to educate the public and reduce stigma.

I originally came upon your blog because I'm taking your upcoming FutureLearn class Psychology and Mental Health. I'm excited for it to begin! I was diagnosed with bipolar just recently, and I wish it endowed ME with magical creative abilities...but, alas.

Just throwing this out there: I'm hosting a Suicide and Mental Health theme on my book blog in September and October. I've been looking for guest bloggers from both the clinical and the personal point of view. I'd be honored if you had the time to write a guest post on my blog during Sept - Oct. Though I completely understand that you are probably swamped with things to do with the oncoming MOOC. I hear they can be a devil to teach if you don't have a flock of TA's or amazing organizational skills. :)

There seems to be a fundamental lack of understanding when it comes to depression and people being 'successful' - however successful is defined. "What's he/she got to be depressed about? If I had their money/fame/looks... I wouldn't be depressed."

Robin Williams' death did not surprise me - but it very much saddened me. We need to be able to understand better, so maybe we can help.

I am also doing the FutureLearn course - I hope it will help me to understand more.

I think that there seems to be a lack of understanding full stop when it comes to depression. Depression can affect anyone regardless of whether they are famous or even successful.Hi Rachel and Sue I too am doing the FutureLearn course and am looking forward to learning more. Can't put down The New Laws of Psychology, it's a great read, missed my stop on the tube yesterday as was so engrossed in the book.

Part of the bigger issue is that the NHS mental health services are unable to cope with the demand for supporting individuals with depression. This leaves organisations like Samaritans and Sane with an increasing workload.